Crime statistics show most burglars visit the front door first before attempting to enter a premise. Statistics show 72.4% of burglaries occur when the premise is unoccupied (National Crime Survey, 2003-2007). Most burglars scout for easy targets. When victimized homes are occupied by women alone, homes are targeted more often.
Conventional crime prevention solutions are passive and offer little crime prevention value. Conventional solutions include outdoor security cameras, signs, and decals from traditional alarm companies. The effectiveness of conventional crime prevention solutions is limited because criminals know they have time to take some valuables and leave before police arrive, even if the alarm is triggered. Many burglaries are not considered high priorities for the police and they will not pursue investigation even if video images of the criminals are available.
One alternative is for a homeowner to construct a system with similar functionality. There are security video cameras that can detect motion and send alerts to homeowners and let them view live video. However, such cameras are designed for monitoring, and not designed to deter and prevent criminals. They are missing critical features that make prevention effective.
The disadvantages of current crime prevention solutions are significant. An alarm system only tells the criminals that the police may come in approximately 8 minutes if the alarm is triggered. An alarm system is inconvenient to arm and generates many false alarms. Criminals know that alarm systems are often not armed. Alarm systems also indicate to criminals that often no one is at home and that there are valuables to protect.
Most conventional crime prevention solutions also do not enable easy sharing of collected images, video, and other information among neighbors or other people. For systems that are used for security purposes to detect and record unwanted visitors, privacy and unwanted alerts are major problems for homeowners. Unwanted intruders are rare. Many homeowners do not want video security cameras recording themselves or family members for privacy reasons. Furthermore, providing too many alerts can be a source of annoyance for a user or even result in users ignoring alerts (i.e., potentially missing an important alert such as an intruder).
It would be desirable to implement an eReceptionist and eNeighborhood watch system for crime prevention and/or verification.